A physical mark.  A scar.  Then there are the impressions branded on our souls we live with everyday.  One we see on the outside. One we emotionally feel on the inside. Some marks or scars we would like to forget, like some men who served in the military who have their tattoos removed when they come home.

Can you wipe away memories?  Listen to this woman share a flashback about a tragic accident regarding one of her sisters, “Memory’s surge burns deep.  That staining of her blood scorches me, but less than the blister of seeing her uncovered, lying there.  She had only toddled into the farm lane, wandering after a cat, and I can see the delivery truck driver sitting at the kitchen table, his head in his hands, and I remember how he sobbed that he had never seen her.  But I still see her, and I cannot forget. Her body, fragile and small, crushed by a truck’s load in our farmyard, blood soaking into the thirsty, track-beaten earth.” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts)

Jesus has scars from his crucifixion.  They didn’t disappear after His resurrection. That same Jesus cares about the marks left on our wounded hearts due to our skepticism, maybe as a result of our suffering.  Listen to what He did to a man who had doubts, “Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side.  Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe! My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.” (John 20:27-28 NLT)

Like everyone else, I have a scar.  Mine is 8 inches long and runs down my chest.  It reminds me of my open heart surgery which occurred two months before I walked our oldest daughter down the aisle.  Pain before the celebration.

Voskamp provides hope after years of struggle. “That cross on my wrist where I used to self-harm, that cross keeps relentlessly suturing me together.”  (The Broken Way)

Love came down vertically from heaven and met us where we are in our horizontal broken world. Love crossed over, but that is not the end.

One day…a man, the God-man is coming to right the wrongs. Unexplained tragedies. Unexplained suffering. Evil which seems to win.  How is He coming? Revelation 19:11&14 reads, “Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there.  Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war.” “The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses.”  

When Jesus the warrior comes, he will reveal yet another physical mark, which you could regard as an eternal tattoo. Revelation 19:16 reads, “On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” (NLT)  Wow! Whatever you are going through, don’t let it damper the hope of your white-bright future promised by the Warrior on the horse.

pictures courtesy of “Nelson & his Nikon”